User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
"Don't be afraid of me." he said and he slipped his finger into my a$$. 365 dni by Blanka Lipińska is a
failed attempt to mix Fifty Shades with mafia romance.
When it comes to the book there are a lot of misleading things about it: from the blurb & title to the trailer for the movie adaptation & so much more.
Let's start with the book title: It means 365 days (also mentioned in the blurb) - The 'hero' gives the heroine 365 days to stay with him so she can fall in love with him, in reality the book only covers their rushed, unhealty relationship for a period of 3-4 months.
The blurb also claims things that after reading this 'book' turn out to be untrue: in no way is this story "disgustingly romantic" as the blurb says. (more about that later).
365 dni is advertised as romance, when the romance aspect of it is questionable to say the least, the book portrays and supports a very toxic abusive relationship & its scenes could be triggering to some readers (Note that no actual warning was given in the beginning of the book, maybe because the author doesn't realize or want to admit that what she's writing is actually rape/assault that's masquerading as 'steamy' consensual s*x).
A short summary: Laura goes on vacation to Sicily with her boyfriend and 2 more friends for her 29th birthday.
Laura is content with her boyfriend Martin even though their relationship lacks the passion she wants & she's the type of woman that loves sex.
A dealbreaker for Laura turns out to be Martin not paying her enough attention because he works too much, on her birthday she has had enough of it so she runs off angry and gets kidnapped.
Her kidnapper is the mafia Don Massimo Toricelli, who's been looking for the girl from his visions for years. He gives her 365 days to fall in love with him the catch here is she can't run off or he will kill her parents (not so romantic already). Throughout the whole book Massimo treats Laura nothing like anyone would treat the girl they were dreaming about.
The characters: Laura "Faints-A-Lot" Biel - I was really surprised she didn't turn out to be the unexperienced innocent virgin type of heroine.
Things to know about her - she can polo dance, she has a weak heart, she can talk hours about shoes, loves anything expensive and would forgive anything if you give her jewelry, clothes or shoes.
Laura isn't really the strong, independent or wise type. She the type of heroine that would have one good breakthrough when it comes to her situation & how the hero treats her only to then take 6000 steps back and throw away her backbone.
Throughout the book she has many conflicted thoughts, she would see that the hero is in the wrong only to excuse his shitty behaviour 5 seconds later to a point it felt like Stockholm Syndrome.
Something I want to mention: In my opinion (and based on what happens in the book) Laura is the author's
self insert , here is why: Around the middle of the book the heroine's appearance changes out of the blue - she decides to change her hairstyle and hair color without any kind of explanation: a short blond bob, which is exactly how the author looks & she even put herself on the cover of the second book about Massiomo and Laura.
Massimo "Consent-Is-Just-A-Word-I-Like-To-Say" Toricelli - This guy is so far the most inlikable character I've ever encountered. I can't believe we're supposed to accept him as the hero of this book, considering how vile he is & the fact he doesn't have any redeemable qualities.
We get to catch a glimpse of how effed up he is in Chapter 1 where he forces himself on a flight attendant.
Things to know about Massimo - he the type of guy that would blame the heroine for him not being able to control himself, the type that would go as far as killing the men that are interested in Laura, he loves to use the word consent but doesn't really respect it, words like 'NO' and 'Stop' mean nothing to him, he's a huge hypocrite (He has no problem getting advantage of tipsy Laura, but gets angry when her ex does that. He thinks is okay to drug another of Laura's exes so he can cheat but kills her ex because he drugs her. He justifies killing said ex because he has hurt her in the past while he was on drugs, when Massimo hurts her all the time and can't excuse his behaviour with being on drugs).
Massimo uses sex as an outlet for his dark & psychopathic side, he takes pleasure in seeing fear in his partners eyes (including Laura's) & almost killing them/them almost choking on his thick as a birthday candle c*ck (Laura's actual description of Little Massimo). Don't be fooled by what the actor that would be playing Massimo is saying about him seeing sex as art, he hasn't read the book.
What absolutely made me hate this character is what he did in Chapter 6 of the book: Laura as I already mentioned has a weak heart (she faints a lot in the book) & also a fear of flying, so when she sees the size of his private jet, she panics & says she doesn't want to get on, Massimo doesn't do what any other normal love interest would do (try to calm her down), instead he forcefully gets her on board, when she tries to leave he starts pushing her around while screaming at her, ties her hands with his belt and when she faints from all this stress he's not fazed at all.
When she wakes up again, he still demands for her to choose a punishment instead of apologizing for his behaviour and asking if she's okay.
Laura chooses a punishment, but he never actually does what she chose, instead forces himself on her despite having promised multiple times he would wait for her consent, what he does next I consider rape/assault.
Once they land he still doesn't care about her hurting, they go to a hotel where he ties her to bed against her will (she herself says she's terrified & wants to get out of the room) & forces her watch him get a blow job from an escort (he almost kills the other girl).
Another thing that crosses a line is Massimo putting a capsule in Laura's arm and lying that it's a contraceptive instead of a tracking device (his whole plan is to get her pregnant so she doesn't want to leave because of the child).
Some secondary characters:
Olga (Laura's bff) - Olga was a character that had potential, but turned out to be just like Laura, she would give Laura a good advice (like tell her that she's in a golden cage, but that's still a cage & that her and Massimo has known each other just for 3 months and it's all maybe too rushed) only to get distracted by the fact that Massimo is rich and buys Laura things & tell her friend she's lucky and to enjoy her life.
Domenico (Massimo's half-brother & Laura's bodyguard) - The only character I somewhat liked. I honestly still don't get why he wasn't the main hero, he was so nice and caring toward Laura, truly the exact opposite of his brother.
Laura's mother - She was just like Olga, she would advice her something good only to discover her daughter's boyfriend is rich and tell her she did good.
Laura's exes (Martin & Piotr) - Both bald headed, with tattoos, Laura definitely had a type before Massimo. Piotr was the ex that was an addict & tried to drug Laura which resulted in Massimo killing him.
Laura and Massimo as a couple - Those two didn't really share any interests, they didn't talk a lot about anything aside from how perversed they are & their sexual fantasies. Their whole relationship was build on violence, blackmail, anger and fighting. The amount of times Laura was terrified of Massimo and decided to just go along with whatever he was saying just so he doesn't get angry/violent is absolutely scary.
Based on everything that happened in this book I can absolutely say this: in no way does 365 dni show any kind of healty, consensual relationship.
The book crossed so many lines even for dark romance. One moment you would have Laura talk about Massimo being nice & gentle when in reality you'd starring at your reading device/paperback in bewilderment because nothing like that was actually happening.
The writing/story/world building:
Aside from being very, very problematic, what's worth noting is that for a mafia 'romance' 365 dni was quite boring, even the final chapter of the book didn't have that much action or an ending that would make you want to read the next book immediately.
I would find myself reading 3 chapters in a row (I'm usually a very fast reader, but this book took me days to finish) & then I would be feeling absolutely down from how repetitive the chapters were and all the stupid decisions the characters would make.
Blanka Lipińska overuses a very cliched & boring method for starting and ending the chapters - Opening her chapters with Laura waking up & finishing them with her fainting or falling asleep (
A little statistic: Laura wakes up as beginning of chapter - Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20 (insinuated), 21; Falls asleep as an end of a chapter - 2, 4, 8 & 15 (insinuated), 19; Faints - Chapters: 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 (as end of a chapter too), 11, 15, 16, 18 (almost)).
365 dni is combination of Laura waking up, sleeping, showering, giving Massimo blow jobs, faiting, throwing up & long and detailed to a point of boredom (and for reaching a wordcount) descriptions of places, people and locations. Laura would literally describe Massimo in great detail almost every chapter and then add that this is how he usually looks (if that's how he look all the time why go out of your way to point it out every time?!)
When it comes to the story elements 365 dni follows E.L. James' Fifty Shades to a T: (I'm almost definitely forgetting a bunch of things that are 100% FS inspired, but these ones stood out to me when I was reading the book)
- Laura's nickname for Massimo is a color, Black
- Stalking the heroine (showing up at places where she would be)
- Watching the heroine sleep
- Having someone change her clothes (Grey undress Anastasia himself, Massimo has someone do that for him)
- Giving her a car (in this one it's actually multiple cars)
- Jealous of almost every straight male around her to a point of violence/outbursts (he's only fine with his half-brother being her bodyguard)
- An evil ex-lover (Massimo's) that set on ruining the new relationship
- Gushing over how good hero looks dressed all casually and being barefoot; how calm & angelic he look while he sleeps
- Hero going to a store for the first time (having to buy something on his own, instead of sending people to do it)
- Heroine cooking breakfast for the hero
- Unexpected pregnancy
- Relationship is based on conditions (FS - Ana has to sign a contract/do what Grey likes; 365 dni - No running away or her parents die)
- Hero says he's not gonna touch the heroine until he has her consent (FS - consent has to be written; 365 dni - hero says the word consent and promises he won't do anything to heroine without it but doesn't keep said promise despite her saying words like "no" and "stop".)
- Calls the heroine "baby"
- Yacht scene
- Heroine accepts the fact she has to endure something she doesn't want to in order to stay with the hero/so he doesn't leave her
- Bath scene where the hero washes the heroine
- Hero is mad at heroine for doing something simple (FS- eye rolling; 365 dni- stretching when she wakes up)
- Heroine has a long line of men showing interest in her
- Hero/Heroine doesn't know how to make love
- Trying to fool the reader & the heroine the hero has died/was killed somehow
- Heroine escapes to a parent's house
- Hero throws heroine over his shoulder
- A rival that wants to take advantage of the intoxicated heroine
- Hero tracks heroine down using a tracking device, app, etc.
- Car chase scene
- Heroine's best friend is interested in the Hero's brother
- Heroine has her own room in Hero's house, later moves into his once they're in 'love'
- Heroine has a bodyguard she's close with
- Hero wants Heroine's full submission and hates disobedience
- Hero drives a car like a GOD
- Hero has wounds on his chest
- Heroine goes without any underwear to a public event
- Hero & Heroine have sex in a car
- Hero/Heroine sees the other's childhood room
- Hero is very set on making the heroine say YES to marrying him
Things that bothered me:
- How the author would unnecesary switch locations to a point it gives you a whiplash, sometimes it would be so confusing where the action is taking place.
- How Laura would say all these nice things about Massimo, about him being gentle, caring & loving when he was all but that to her.
- How the book title leads you to believe the book would cover a whole year, but in reality it's just 3-4 months.
- The fact that the relationship was anything but consensual and healthy.
- The fact that Laura spend months with Massimo, she even said she loves him before she ever knew his last name!
- How the whole relatioship was only sex oriented instead of them forming some type of a bond too.
- The sex scenes were basically one and the same
- Laura somehow knowing things about Massimo's parents (and how Massimo's eyes would go all soft when he speaks about his dead mother) when we don't actually see them ever talking about anything personal like that
- How Blanka would introduce characters out of the blue with them not existing before the certain scene (Laura's bestfriend - she literally never mentions Olga before she needs someone to talk to in the middle of the book; Laura's brother/Laura's cousin's wedding - All mentioned once Blanka needs them for the plot, no prior mention before that).
- How Laura would talk about a character with: 'the young italian', etc. without mentioning the name of the character, so you basically have to guess who she's talking about.
- How Laura would go back and forth between thinking clearly and acting like she was brainwashed by Massimo's dick.
- The fact this is yet another book that romanticizes and tries to normalize abuse
I'm sure there are more things I'm forgetting that were problematic and made me angry.
To summarize, 365 dni is a very badly written book that copies Fifty shades to a T & supports a toxic, abusive relationship.
It's a book that has scenes that cross the line into rape and try to pass them as romantic.
The story flows slow, doesn't have that much action to keep you invested, often bores you to death & lacks characters that you can truly root for.
The chapters are poorly written, very repetitive and predictable and sometimes end like the author forgot to finish them, the twists aren't at all surprising or exciting. The scenes are at times too detailed to a point it feels like it's all for the word count.
If you're wondering if you should read this after seeing the 'STEAMY' trailer: Don't. This book is not worth your time. What you see in the trailer isn't what you get in the book.
Rating: really liked it
I would have never read this trash if a movie had not been made on it.
A woman is kidnapped by an Italian don because apparently he had seen her before in his dreams and had sociopathically hung her exact portraits all around the house. This woman is the most unrealistic of the characters. She treats her kidnap as a vacation and her kidnapper as a lover. This can not even be classified as a case of Stockholm Syndrome because this behavior is displayed on just the next day of kidnapping. It is definitely not a survival behavior because she doesn't even go through the basic emotions and experiences a person kidnapped undergoes.
Kidnapping and imprisonment is just a way for author to keep the the female protagonist confined to have her at complete mercy of her kidnapper so that he can use her as a sex slave. But the author can not put the truth simply as that so she cloaks it under the impression of different kind of romance and love.
This is where the author and stupid lovers of this book are completely wrong. Abuse is not romance. Coercion is not romance. Violence is not romance. Crime is not romance. Mafia is not romance.
Italian mafia is highly romanticised because of the apparently exotic looks of Italian males which brings readers under the false predisposition that bosses in mafia are all Italian and all gorgeous when in reality, mafia leaders are usually old middle-aged creepy pedophiles with the most misogynistic of attitudes. Criminals treat people worst and that includes women. There is nothing slightly romantic about being a sex toy of a criminal. The money and luxury that comes with it is never hers but just a payment in exchange of her sexual services which will stop when the men get bored and they will get bored because the women is just a body to them.
Lust and physical attraction is not love. Just because someone wants to have sex with you doesn't mean that they care and like you. They can use and trash you without a blink of an eye.
These kinds of books are so harmful to condition of women in society especially when movies are made of them. Fifty Shades Of Grey romanticised violence against women during sex and 365 days is going to romanticise forceful captivation of women because obviously if the man loves her, then the woman is definitely going to fall head over heels in love with her kidnapper and they would live happily ever after.
This may sound judgemental but it is true that the women who write and adore such books are classic cases of internally misogynistic women.
The female protagonist slutshames the escort women forgetting that she gives the male protagonist sex and he gives her money which is the definition of being a whore and while she is relishing this lifestyle, there is a high chance that the women escort is there because of sex-trafficking and would give the world to leave this lifestyle . She bends over backwards to please men and has such negative attitude towards women. This is what internally misogynistic women are. They think that this is a world of men and women have to survive by competing over each other in pleasing men. These are the women who join
men in mocking feminists.
No man ever writes about his kind in such a degrading way but we have hordes of women writing about women in a worse manner than even some misogynistic men. It is so sad that feminists fight so much for equal rights for women and then there are some women who fantasise about getting treated like pathetic sexual objects if they are being pampered with luxury and free superficial materials. Pedophiles and domestic abusers exist to portray how manipulative and abusive sexual relationships can be.
The wrong ideas given to both men and women are so detrimental to the society. Women are suggested that they like to be treated degradingly and men are suggested that women like to be treated degradingly making women the victim again in the end and making their lives even worse in this patriarchal world.
Books influence society and movies even more so I'm really concerned how more and more degrading female protagonists are becoming in these "romantic" books and movies. We had Anna and now we have Laura. I fear that the next one will be openly a sex slave and still some women will be swooning over it.
Rating: really liked it
Let's start out by being blunt: this is one of the most blatantly harmful books that I have ever read. I read this because I had heard so many people buzzing about the movie based on it last summer (which I have not seen and now definitely won't), and wow do I regret it. Not only does this glamorize an extremely abusive relationship, but it does so while also being extremely misogynistic and fatphobic. And on top of my issues with the content, the book itself had horrible pacing and the plot made absolutely no sense. This book was just all around a HARD miss for me, and if you somehow still have any intention to read it, please take care of yourself and be mindful of any trigger warnings.
TW: sexual assault, coercion, kidnapping, emotional manipulation, murder, violence, slut shaming, food shaming, drug/alcohol use
Rating: really liked it
This is why the aliens don't visit us
Rating: really liked it
The Man in Black!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💜💛💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 👤👤👤👤
The setting: Italy
The Hero(s): Don Massimo Toricelli - Boss in the Sicilian mafia. Massimo had a dream after being shot, or possibly a near death experience in which he saw the face of a woman and ever since he has been searching for this woman.
The heroine: Laura Biel - After achieving her dream job, she realizes she is bored and quits work for a while. She is on vacation in Italy with her boyfriend and some friends. While in Italy, she meets Massimo at a few different places and is both intrigued by him and scared of him.
The Love Story:Massimo kidnaps Laura and threatens her loved ones if she tries to escape. He proposes that she stay with him for 365 days in which he will try to get her to fall in love with him. He says he won’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Though in making her stay and threatening her family, isn’t he doing just that???
Someone told me the Netflix movie is basically porn. I am not really a watcher of porn, but I am now wanting to see the movie after picturing Massimo doing all the things he has done in this book. The book is somewhat porn, but not strictly smutty porn. There is definitely a story and I enjoyed it. Though I must say since many people hate captive romance books due to the whole force and/or Stockholm syndrome aspects, I am not bothered by them.
I like dark and twisty books and characters. Though Massimo wasn’t nearly as bad as many of the anti-hero’s of captive romance that I have read. Also unlike many people, I don’t think romance novels need to be seen as a purveyor of what the world should be like and I don’t think romance authors should only write characters that are good to make some sort of statement about what is right and what is wrong. I think they can be just plain entertainment and I like dark sexy men in my books even when they do wrong.
Massimo grew up in a violent world, he is used to being violent in many ways, especially in bed. But he has real feelings for Laura and he wants her to fall in love with him. So he is trying to be gentle with her. However, Laura is being held hostage, so she fights Massimo at every turn. He sees her fight (including being insolent and slapping him) as her disrespecting him. As a Don, he is not used to being shown disrespect so he often reacts violently.
Though not as violently as I expected. Massimo’s mood often turns on a dime and he will go from walking or sitting peacefully to jumping on her and speaking or doing something harshly. However, he notices when she shows fear and tends to back off. It gets to the point where Massimo backing off isn’t always what Laura really wants.
Like I said, and like many books with BDSM elements, there are a ton of steamy situations and sizzling content in this book. I was surprised that with 476 ratings on GR, the overall rating is less than 4 stars. Though since I am reading an ARC from Netgalley, I assume that many of those are reviews polish version. Possibly it was improved for the English version or maybe I just liked it better than most. Either way, I did think the story was terrific. My overall rating is 4.6, rounded up to 5 stars. It is sexy, romantic and I do plan to continue reading the series, so there you have it!
Lastly for those that compared this book to Fifty Shades, there are some BDSM elements so if that is enough to compare one book to another then they are alike in that only. Massimo is much more alpha male (in my opinion) than Christian Grey and he isn’t damaged like Christian is damaged by his early abuse and his mother’s friend. Massimo is a Mafia Kingpin and is used to having his way and he doesn’t have a red room. So other than some kinky sexual proclivities, I didn’t really see any comparison.
I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
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Rating: really liked it
It’s up!! → https://youtu.be/w8MlF36jKEE
This was..... painful. I'm editing my video right now so stay tuned!
***
I don’t think I’m ready but I’m going in anyway
Rating: really liked it
If you're looking for a mafia romance over here, be careful for what you wish for. Appearances can be deceiving sometimes.
My initial reaction to the hot movie trailer...............
Me after actually reading the book.......
Aaaaaand me thinking why the hell did I downloaded the english translation of this book in the first place......
No offense to the author and the readers who enjoyed this book. Our tastes our different. And I won't judge you, but I will be judging these characters since I took so much trouble and time to read this story (yeah I actually went to Google, searched for the english version and downloaded a PDF and read this thing).
To the ones who fell for this one and is excited in reading this.........
You are not alone in that. But like I said appearances can be deceiving.
So here is my honest review on this book (NOT THE MOVIE).....
My reasons for rating this a one star:-
No 1 : The Beginning The story starts with Massimo, our H forcing a flight attendant to give him a blowjob(how romantic! *shudders*).
Ok this WAS NOT how I was expecting the beginning!
Blood spilling/Murder/Kidnapping : No problem!
Robbed the China Construction Bank: Cool!
Stole the moon: Awesome!
Got on an airplane and got a blowjob: Not cool man. Not cool!
Most mafia romances, I read started with some kind of violence, flashback, signing a contract or something similar. I'm not saying I was expecting those same beginnings but I was hoping it would be something thrilling. NOT a fucking blowjob. The beginning of a story is important. Especially the first 5 pages. Because it's the beginning that makes a reader choose between carrying on reading further or just stopping it right there.
In my opinion the beginning was disgusting and disappointing! I mean, who want to read about some blowjob the second you turn the open the first page. Not me!
If it was him fucking someone it would have been ok. But force and blowjob..........those two words did NOT work for me at all!
No 2 :The Title and The Blurb This title and blurb is a total lie. The title says
365 dni(days) as in a mobster kidnaps the girl in his dreams and gives her 365 days to
fall in love with him.
In reality the h
fell in love with H in a less than fucking 5 months. As in falling in love.....poof. There was NO love between them. I will be explaining about it afterwards.
No 3 : The Plot I think 3/4 of this book's chapters' ended with the h falling asleep or fainting and began with her waking up. Either the this author didn't know how to end this or this girl got a serious heart problem or amenia or something similar. I mean fainting is ok but when the h faints like once in 10 pages, the story is gets boring.
This story is supposed to be a
Mafia romance. And
Mafia means there's gotta be some actions and blood spilling. Call me bloodthirsty, but I like my romances with a few murders and fights. But unfortunately for poor me, this book did not have those. I don't think any of those fights went far more than a page or two and they were all poorly written. It was like there were no fight at all. And yup all of them ended with the h fainting or the h and H arguing.
This story does NOT have a plot at all. The author kept changing places out of the blue and many characters (all of them were nut cases) were introduced for no reason. There were not much dialogues exchanged between the h and H. Most of the time it was just long descriptions about places, how Massimo looked and their wild fucking.And the sex was the same thing *copy pasted* over again and again. Plot twists weren't thrilling. The title says 365 days but it took like 4 weeks for this whore to fall to this abuser. Bleh!
No 4 : Massimo & Laura : Their Chemistry 
I hated Laura. She was neither an innocent sweet girl or a badass sassy bitch She was just some gold digging, horny whore. She would do anything if you just hand her some money or jewelry. She can goes hours about shoes and can do pole dance like a stripper. Anyone who have read Bound By Honor, remember Luca's crazy ex Grace? Laura is just like her. She is one of the most weakest and shallowest heroine I ever seen. When she gets kidnapped, she doesn't even cry or get terrified or scream like normal people will, which makes me think if she's a human being at all. She fights like 3 times and just give in. She doesn't care much about the H expect his good looking body and his money. She also is mood changer. One moment she's fighting with Massimo and the next she's begging him to fuck her. She does things without reason(colors her hair).She was disgusting.
And as for Massimo. Ugh I hated him too. He uses sex as a weapon and he is one of those guys who can't keep their dicks in their pants for like 5 mins. He loves forcing and fearing his partners in unhealthy ways. You can't even call it sex. Most of the time I would say it was rape. Sex with no emotions and all I can do but rape I hate it. The most disgusting thing was when he had a blowjob in front of Laura, the woman he claimed he's in love with and his forever. I mean what kind of a man will do that! He doesn't even care about Laura. He loves forcing her to do things she doesn't like, doesn't care when she faints or get sick (best example: laura gets scared of flying on his jet but Massimo instead of calming her down, tie her up and force her to sit and then finger fucks her *GAGS*.) Just because he is a mobster doesn't mean he's got a right to rape someone and violate innocent people's lives (yeah he goes far as to trying to kill Laura's ex lovers). Massimo is an extreme psychopath. I mean this man have serious mental issues.
The most surprising thing here was how in the world did he remember Laura's face so clearly? In the story it claims he only caught a glimpse and had a vision about Laura and then he ordered a pianist to paint pictures of her all over the villa. There was no picture or sketch of Laura for the pianist to draw her and the guy hasn't even seen her. So HOW IN THE WORLD COULD HE PAINT A FUCKIN PICTURE OF LAURA WITHOUT ANY MISTAKES? Plain weird!!
There were no chemistry or love between them. And yet the h claims she's in love with the H in a less than 5 months held in his captive. And there's even no connection between them. They don't even talk, they just fuck like bunnies. I'm surprised Laura even knows his name because when she professed her love she didn't even know his last name.
Violence and rape is not love. You can't even call this Stockholm Syndrome. This is plain crazy weird. This book felt more like porn than an actual book because the author didn't seem to care about the plot holes,except only the sexual fantasies which made me sick. And as for BDSM and kink *snorts* Massimo is not a Dom at all. Being a Dom means taking care of your partners and their needs while satisfying your own. That is the number one rule when being a Dominant. And Massimo was a selfish manwhore who cared only about himself. He doesn't stop even when his partner says"No".
Love.....does this author know at least what that word means? Love means cherishing, caring learning about your partner and this..........there was no love between them. Not even lust because Massimo seems to get a hard on everytime he sees a beautiful woman . This is more like porn than a love story. Because this love story only contains fainting, forcing, blackmail, rape, shopping, assault, mental abuse and blowjobs with different women. Yuck!!
No 5 : Similarities to Fifty Shades of Grey I'm no fan of FSOG but this book was just a bad version of it written in Polish. I mean, this author literally copied most things from FSOG. I don't mind if she was inspired by E.L James and wrote a book but literally coping off everything E.L James wrote was disgusting. Because it meant she just copied off someone else's creation instead of her own.
A few eg:
-Laura calls Massimo, Black
-Yacht scene
-Laura best friend likes Massimo's brother
and the list is endless.
I don't know how in the world people find this book romantic. Because this book was plain disgusting.
And btw Laura mentions Massimo's dick look like a birthday candle(yeah the book couldn't get any worse). A whole disgrace for our men community even tho it's a bit funny.If you are looking for a Mafia romance, I'm warning you this book is just a fast spaced story of an abusive toxic relationship between mobster and a whore.
Rating: really liked it
I was looking forward to this book being translated into English because I watched the movie trailer, and oh my God, it was hot.
I just knew it was about a man who almost died when his heart stopped beating and saw a girl in front of his eyes during those moments. When he was brought back to life, he promised himself that he would find the woman he saw. And when he finds and kidnaps her, she has 365 days to decide if she loves him and wants to stay with him.
That's what I knew... and the hot hot hot trailer, of course.
Now, with the warning of my friend Harim, I read a review in English that says more about the book and now, I am pissed that the hero has sex with her without her consent, forcing himself on her. He sounds cruel and abusive. Also a hypocrite and a liar.
Now, after reading that review, sadly, I have lost my interest in this book.
Here's a lot more information about this book:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rating: really liked it
Bahahaha this is that ridiculous Polish Fifty Shades of Grey clone and YES. I've seen the movie.
It was awful. Deliciously so. I laughed my way through the entire thing--
BUT I WATCHED THE ENTIRE THING.
SO who is the real fool here? Probably me.
Rating: really liked it
I kinda lost it when his dick was compared to a candle attached to a birthday cake.
Massimo Toricelli is the leader of the Sicilian mafia. Years ago he was shot several times and when he was almost dead he dreamed of a stunning unknown woman. After so long searching, he finally found her. Her name is Laura Biel, a polish woman spending her twenty-ninth birthday in Sicily. Massimo kidnaps her and keeps her captive. His game is: having her under his control for 365 days, while she must fall in love with him.
This is ridiculously bad. I couldn't even get mad, because it's just pathetic.
First of all: the book doesn't deliver what it promises. What we can expect from the synopsis is that Massimo will keep Laura captive for one year and at the end of the book we'll see if she's in love with him or not (the answer being very predictable). See, the one year thing is very important, because it's literally the title of the book. What we get.... three months. Yeah, three months.
It may sound stupid, but I need to say the obvious: the relationship here is abusive. Massimo is totally controlling and possessive, and holds all the power.
Since the very start, Grey states... oops! Did I say Grey? I meant Black! Yes, Laura's nickname for Massimo is Black. (We can even see the originality running in the background. I'm touched).
What was I saying? So, let's talk about consent. Since the very start, Massimo states that he has no intention to rape Laura. Yeah. He says it several times. You could ask me why he needs to keep reassuring that, but I think you can deduce the answer... Because there are a lot of almost-rapes. See, Massimo can't help himself! He says explicitly that
he can't control his body. In case you don't know, this is a very, very popular excuse used by real abusers to justify their harassment and rape. There's a particulary disturbing moment when after a rape attempt he says that
since he's so used to violence it's really, really hard for him to not use violence when someone denies pleasure to him. And Laura feels PITY for him. Poor rapist, he's having his pleasure denied! This is not how things work. Healthy men are totally and completely responsible for their actions, not mattering how much "temptation" they face. Now that we have this cleared, another
fact for you: bodies can't consent.
Physical reactions DON'T consent. It's still rape and abuse if the victim's body reacts to the aggressor's touch. The victim's pleasure is another excuse used by real rapists to stand for their actions. This book is extremely disrespectful toward abuse survivors.
Still about Massimo: he isn't a person, or even a character. Where his personality and characterisation should be, there's a huge blank space. In case you haven't guessed, Laura does fall in love with him, but I still don't get exactly what she falls for. He is totally EMPTY!!!!!! "Abusive" ISN'T A FREAKING PERSONALITY. Laura says he is gentle and caring, but that doesn't make much sense, since they spend all their time together having sex (with consent? Who knows. At certain point the sex scenes were so UNCOUNTABLE that I coundn't pay attention anymore).
Ha! The love interest isn't the only man in Laura's life. She has some abusive ex's, so Massimo can protect her properly, of course (and also from another random guy who tries to rape her). For some reason, he seems to not figure out that if he plans to harm or kill every single man who hurts Laura, the first target would be himself.
Sometimes I actually want authors to forget LGBT people. This is one of those times. No, Laura, gays don't exist to serve you. What the hell. We have the usual: misogynist and ableist language, but next to the end we have also a racist description. *Sigh*
Now, something good: our heroine isn't a innocent virgin! She has a lot of sexual experience, masturbates, etc. About her...
Laura is...well, would you forgive so freaking fast a rapist stalker who threatened to harm your family if he had a fine dick? I'm asking because, at least for me, his dick seemed very ugly.
Rating: really liked it
0.1 stars 🎂
This is the worst book I’ve ever read so it gets an extra tenth of a star for being ✨ number one ✨
The heroine is a doormat and a dumbass. She supposedly has a heart condition which she takes medication for yet drinks like it’s no tomorrow?? Then she wonders why she passes out every second 🤡
The hero is literally disgusting. The book opens up with him trying to choke a woman with his dick and him fucking another woman while staring at photos of the heroine—
I slid my cock out of her pussy and slammed it into her tight ass. I heard her scream wildly in pain and ecstasy and felt her tighten around me. My prick exploded with cum, but the only thing I could see was my Mistress.
What’s up with the million and a half synonyms for the word “dick”? The author called it everything, but that i stg–
His beautiful, straight, and thick prick stood erect like the candle stuck in the birthday cake I had had back at the hotel.
The hero visits the heroines childhood home and questions if she’s ever given a blowjob in her room to which the heroine responds–
“I leaned him against the door and knelt in front of him,” I said, placing a hand on Massimo’s torso and pushing him toward the door.
—Aw look at her trying to recreate the moment. So romantic 😍
Somehow the book ended up being worse than the movie which is actually quite the accomplishment!
Rating: really liked it
10/6/20Contains spoilers for my Safety GangI looked this up because obviously I watched the movie. And man, is Michele Morrone hot!
I think you get my point..
Unfortunately, after looking up many and various reviews of the trilogy, I really don't want to read the book. And it's not that it's a close copy of Fifty Shades either. It's because apparently by the end of the trilogy the author screws over both characters and there's cheating. Complete character turnarounds I could possibly, if written well, excuse but cheating is a big no,no from me. I hope they change the ending for the movies, if they do them. Poor Morrone doesn't deserve his character to go down the tubes.
Also, because of the inevitable backlash about the romantisation of abuse and Stocholm Syndrome etc, I have to say that I know it's fiction and that's why I like reading/watching it. Seriously, no one in their right mind would want this in real life but that's why we read romance and fantasy because it is not real. Books and movies provide safe escape to millions. If you don't like it, don't buy it, don't read it and don't watch it. Case in point, I like me a dirty talking, bad Italian mafioso boy but I'm not reading this because it contains cheating which I hate in all forms.
Rating: really liked it
I hated the movie so much that from time to time I would get flashback of certain scene and insta GAG 😒 that said movie literally traumatized me
I was waiting on this book to get translated into English so that I could read it and see if this book is as bad as the movie 😴 cz I refuse to believe any Made man lacks character this much
I mean my man
Nicholas Angelo Russo (Nico, father of my unborn child ) can wipe his a$$ with Massimo or
Mass destruction of brain cells whatever f**k his good for nothing name is!
To prove you are good in bed you gotta get blowed in front of your girl 🤣? Excuse you!
So the moment of truth I guess
But having said that I have more fabulous books lined up
Also, I am having second thoughts!!
Cz you know? Time is precious and I am not sure if it deserves my time
The reason it's a follow-along series so if I read the first book I will also have to read the other two books (yes I am that OCD chick )
So guess I will take my sweet time to finally read it........or not
Rating: really liked it
Wish it was in English version after seeing the movie trailer
Rating: really liked it
this is too much for me, i'm actually feeling the insanity reaching my braincells i can't do it. please save yourself and don't read this mess.
